DRAFT PROFILE: Shaun Wade, CB, Ohio State
29 January 2021 CORNERBACK DRAFT Opinion Philadelphia Eagles
Measurables: 6’1” 194 LBs
Shaun Wade is a 22 year old cornerback for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, Wade attended Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville where his team won the Florida State Championship in all four of his seasons with the team. As a senior, Wade received the honor of winning USA Today’s High School Football Player of the Year and the Lockheed Martin defensive back of the year award at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. With this much success in high school, Wade earned the right to be a five star recruit and committed to play for the Buckeyes. Wade redshirted his freshman year in 2017 and came back to play all 14 games in 2018 where he finished the season with 31 tackles and three interceptions. Wade followed his impressive redshirt sophomore season with 25 tackles, 2 sacks and another pick in 2019 before only playing five games in 2020, due to COVID-19 restrictions. After his fair share of success and failures throughout his college career, Shaun Wade will be a heavily scrutinized prospect in 2021. Wade plays his best ball whenever he’s utilized in the nickel corner role or when he has safety protection over the top. Based on what we’ve seen from Wade, he’s probably best suited to play strong safety in the NFL in order to maximize is athleticism, ball skills, length and hit power without asking him to utilize man coverage. Wade really shines in short area bursts, with good start/stop ability but he seems lost whenever he’s on the outside with no safety help. A position change may be his best option to reaching his ceiling.
Strengths
- Size
- Burst
- Ball Skills
- Hit Power
- Length
- Athleticism
- Quick Feet
- Positional versatility
Weaknesses
- Limited deep field speed
- Poor pedal technique
- Hips can get locked
- Lost on outside coverage
NFL Comparisons
Logan Ryan. Ryan has had much more success being a big/physical corner than Wade would hope to have. Wade does best whenever his aggressive nature and good ball skills allow him to take chances in coverage, meaning a split, or three deep, safety look are probably his best fit schematically. After a switch to strong safety, Ryan revitalized his career with the New York Giants and that appears to be the best route for Shaun Wade to take in the NFL as well, without having to take the early struggles that Ryan took.
Projection
Round 3-4. It’s never easy to project a prospect like Wade. There are times where he flashes in coverage and makes tremendous plays on the football or receiver and is always fighting for that momentum turnover by the defense. However, he has a hard time understanding the risk/reward concept of a game breaking play. A lot of times he will abandon his coverage to go make a play on the ball and it costs a massive gain or a touchdown. He bites hard on double moves and pump fakes and is beaten deep often for that. Wade does have the length and athleticism to play outside man coverage and has the trigger skills and size to play zone but would do best as a base strong safety or big nickel option.
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